The global total solar radiation energy is about 1.7×1017 W and China shared 1% of the total solar radiation energy (about 1.8×1015 W, equivalent to 1,900,000 million tons of standard coal per year), which is equal to 700 times of annual total energy consumption in China. Therefore, solar energy has great potential as a new energy source. Besides, solar energy is clean, pollution-free and renewable, whose utilization can significantly alleviate the pressure of current fossil energy crisis and environment pollution.
The solar power generation technology is usually classified into photovoltaic power generation and solar thermal power generation. Photovoltaic power generation has large impact on the power grid because of low flux density and serious fluctuation of solar energy. Moreover, battery is the best choice as energy storage media for photovoltaic power generation but not feasible because of relatively high cost.
The solar thermal power generation technologies use the thermal energy from concentrating solar radiation to generate power. Recently, solar gas turbine is a promising option in solar thermal power generation systems. The gas turbine power generation system provides high efficiency, fast start, good peak-load regulation performance, short construction period, small occupied area, low water consumption, low maintenance cost etc. Solar energy is used to heat air from the compressor, and the heated compressed air enters turbine directly or after being heated further in the combustion chamber for power generation to generate power. Therefore, the fossil fuel consumption can be greatly reduced.
However, just as mentioned above, because of the low flux density and large fluctuation of solar energy, the temperature of solar receiver can be excessively high when solar radiation is strong thus decreasing the operation stability; when solar radiation is insufficient, the temperature of compressed air entering the combustion chamber may be inadequate, so the effectiveness of energy saving in solar power generation is reduced.